Runelords 07.0 - The Quasit Beneath Sandpoint
Bright and early the following morning, the three extraplanars, Quint and Luna reconvened to deal with the quasit they had ran from the previous day. Armed with a net they had borrowed from the dockyards, they hoped to be able to pin it and defeat it, using Eamon's ability to Detect Evil and a casting of Glitterdust from Quint to overcome its invisibility. As they approached the glassworks, they saw a woman standing outside the door, holding a lantern. It was Shadliss Vinder, looking tired and distraught. Everyone turned to Virgil and glared, as he rolled his eyes and muttered that he'd deal with it. He greeted her and approached, while the others lingered a distance away; she explained that all of this, the thought that there was a devil under the town and everyone was in danger, was too much, and she had to see it herself. Virgil managed to dissuade her, telling her that the danger was too great for her to go down there. It was well within their ability to deal with it, however, and if she waited, she could go down and look after the quasit was banished and it was made safe. She relented without much argument, and handed Virgil her lantern, saying she hoped it would help. He thanked her, and left her sitting outside with his ravens as they entered the building. Before returning to the lair of the quasit, they first walked up and down the tunnels, looking for another exit. Since no one had seen Tsuto in town and every exit in the tunnels had been blocked, it stood to reason that somewhere there was a hidden path somewhere that they had missed. However, a survey of the tunnels and the two caved-in staircases in the compound revealed nothing. As they walked around the ancient hallways, Khyrralien noted a deep growling sound coming from beneath him, but opted not to mention it at the time. Deciding that they could look more extensively later, they moved towards the chapel. The doors had been closed, but Eamon could still sense two evil presences beyond the door. Assuming that the moderate aura belonged to the quasit and the completely overpowering one to the altar, they opted to move forwards with their plan. Virgil knocked on the door and called out to the quasit, who replied with a shrill disdain. She told him, if he was here to serve Fierna, he should collect the water from the basin and enter; otherwise, she would not speak to him. Shrugging, he took a vial from Luna and collected some of the unholy fluid before opening the doors and stepping in, thinking idly that she was definitely going to use Suggestion on him and make him drink it. When he entered, he could see another golem by the altar, but the quasit did not reveal itself. Keeping invisible, it spoke briefly with Virgil, her shrill, somewhat addled nature making for a difficult conversation that yielded little in the way of useful information. It seemed that she was not directly related to the attacks on Sandpoint; she had no love lost for Tsuto and merely tended the chapel, sacrificing any unwitting creatures that happened by to her goddess' might. The furious golems they had met would attack anyone who didn't present the proper sign, as they were defenders of the chapel, and it seemed that the quasit had indeed been in the building since long before it had sunken underground and become lost. As it became clear to the tiny devil that Virgil was not going to drink the unholy water of his own accord, she compulsed him to do so. He managed to resist and throw the vial away, prompting the others to engage. Eamon used Detect Evil to track its movements, allowing him to point its rough location out to Quint, who had to cast Glitterdust twice before striking it. Virgil ran forwards to deal with the golem, as the quasit summoned a second; Khyrralien and Luna waited for their invisible adversary to be revealed. When the Glitterdust struck true, outlining the tiny devil's form, the other two leapt into battle. Luna began tossing bombs at her, while Khyrralien attempted to throw a net over her, though when he missed entirely, he focused instead on the golem that blocked his way. Virgil killed the first golem with a single swing, chopping off its legs at the knees and causing it to break its head as it slammed back into the edge of the pool it had climbed out of. As he moved to help the fey with the second golem, the quasit meanwhile invoked terror in the other three, though Luna proved immune to its magic. However, it did cause Eamon and Quint to run frightened from the room. The quasit also successfully cast a paralytic spell on Khyrralien, causing him to stand stock still as the golem assaulted him. He broke free of the spell quickly enough and joined Virgil in attacking it. Unfortunately, though the golem was pinned between the two men, they failed to lay a clean strike upon it. In its rage, it turned on Virgil and shoved him backwards, sending him careening into the pool of roiling orange liquid. It was unearthly cold and froze Virgil through; as he clambered to get out before the chill killed him, Khyrralien gored the golem on his antlers and killed it. Meanwhile, Luna continued her assault, causing the quasit no end of grief. It could not affect her with its mental magics, and the glitter that coated it prevented it from escaping. In a fit, it pulled a small knife and rushed the woman, flitting about her head and stabbing her repeatedly. Though the wounds were far from serious, she could not throw explosives at it while it harried her. As she ran about, swatting at it and failing to make contact, Eamon and Quint reappeared. Quint cast Protection from Evil on Luna, while the quasit snapped a Command at Eamon, causing him to throw himself prone. Luna drew back, and with another bomb, sent the quasit back to Hell, with its few tiny possessions dropping to the ground. The group collected up the various items dropped by the small devil and convened around the pool, wondering what to do about it. The lava-like water inside it seemed much paler than before; using its abilities seemed to drain it. They eventually determined to make more golems in an attempt to remove the last of the pool's power. Using Eamon's blood they made another creature manifest, which they quickly and handily destroyed. With the summoning and subsequent destruction of the creature, the orange fluid lost its color, stopped boiling and evaporated to nothing, leaving an empty pool that had lost much of its overpowering evil aura. After discussing it, they decided that they would leave the pool as it was for the moment: there was no one left to activate it, it seemed to be turned off, and, barring who or whatever might be making the ominous growling noises deeper in the compound in areas they could not currently reach, the area seemed secure. Once the tunnels could be sealed, there should be no more present danger to Sandpoint. Resolving to check on the pool the next day to ensure that it hadn't reactivated itself before the walls could be completed, they composed themselves and left. On their way back, Eamon decided to claim the ranseur held by the statue of Magelord Alaznist. It came out without much trouble, and Quint remarked about the weapon's stylized make and design. Anyone with academic knowledge of Alaznist would be able to recognize the designs on the iconic spear. When they returned to the surface around noontime, Shadliss was still waiting, having fallen asleep while sitting on a nearby barrel. Eamon and Luna shot Virgil dirty looks before walking away, stating their intentions to update the mayor; Quint went off excitedly to make notes about the pool after his more thorough examination. Khyrralien mentioned to Virgil that he was putting in an awful lot of effort for an easy lay; Virgil's off-handed reply about liking pets made the fey roll his eyes as he joined Eamon and Luna. The three reported to the mayor about the events of the morning and the security of the tunnels. She replied that she could send a team of masons down the next day to seal the tunnels, but at least one of them would have to go to supervise and direct, to ensure the correct paths were blocked off. They considered their next step in protecting Sandpoint, namely warding off a goblin invasion. The mayor thanked them for their efforts, though she was still obviously unhappy to have to work with the chaos that came with freelancing adventurers. When they left, they stopped in to see Larz, and sold to him the three common ranseurs they had taken from the golems, along with the hatchet they had claimed from Korvus. The fine axe had netted them a reasonable sum of gold; the three present teammates agreed with pursed lips that Luna should take what she was owed out of Virgil's share. Meanwhile, Virgil spoke to Shadliss, reassuring her that everything was fine, that the devil was gone, Sandpoint was safe, and he wasn't planning on leaving it undefended. As he spoke, he felt a peculiar sensation that he had experienced in the past, and was familiar with what it meant: beings from beyond Materia physically manifested their alignment, and he had apparently done enough evil to warrant a change in his. Unnerved by the connotation but as of yet unsure of what he had done to register as evil, he carried on as though everything was fine. Virgil offered to show Shadliss the tunnels, if it would make her feel better, and she accepted. They walked quietly down the dark tunnels, until they reached the store room filled with shattered pottery. They stopped here, and Virgil tried once more to belay her fears, trying very hard to be more comforting and less facetious than before. He tried to make the presence of ruins under towns seem mundane, to downplay the sinister aspects of this particular location and to play off the quasit as a housekeeping summon that time forgot. After a while, Shadliss collected a piece of pottery, and commented that she found the place creepy; Virgil quickly escorted her out, deeply grateful that she hadn't wanted to see anything further than the storehouse. He walked her through the tunnels and to her home, the girl obviously dead on her feet; when they arrived she thanked him for showing it to her. He told her to get some sleep, which she replied with a request to make sure no devils disturbed her. Agreeing to that, Shadliss commented that she was glad to have him around to protect her and went inside. Virgil left, dismayed at the level of attachment he had apparently encouraged and deciding that that was the likely culprit of his descent to evil. That night, the three men once more went to the Hagfish, where Eamon tried his luck yet again at consuming the awful fish tank water. He appeared to be about to stomach it, when he suddenly vomited violently all over himself, the floor and the surrounding area. Virgil was on hand for magical clean-up, while Khyrralien took far too much joy in the pain of his ill commander that he himself had funded, creating the tipping point for him to solidify himself deeper into his evil alignment, impacting his physical appearance. He found this too to be hilarious. Category:Rise of the Runelords